Well the past month has been crazy... not as oh I've been busy but as in I've felt like I was living in a novella/soap opera.
It will have been a month tomorrow since I was shot.
We had spent the day at the pool and some friends were dropping us off back home. We were all outside the car say goodbye to each other when two guys came running over. Me being the naïve gringa thought they needed help.. then I saw the gun. The next part was all a bit confusing. They were shouting at us to run away, obviously I didn't understand what they were saying. I also had my bag so hesitated as I thought they wanted that as well. I think they shot to scare us into running, which by that point I was. They took the car and I looked at my arm and saw a tiny bit of blood. I thought I had just been grazed but then my arm felt really heavy and I shouted I think I've been shot. At this point, we were trying to get anyone's attention to call the police as we didn't think we had any phones. Fortunately some neighbours heard and came out to help.
There's a CCTV that some kind person (sarcastic tone) released to the press
here of part of what happened.
About 3 police cars arrived straight away but it took about 15 minutes for the ambulance to arrive.
The main things I remember from the ambulance were; I am never having kids if giving birth is worse than this pain, I hope no one puts anything on Facebook and my family finds out on Facebook, how do Brazilian hospitals work, am I going to have to pay for all this and I need to work on my Portuguese asap!!
I got to the hospital and immediately understood why Brazilians are protesting about all the money being spent on the world cup and not on health and education.
I was given some painkillers, then taken to another room where I waited, then a nurse, well mainly Fabio put a HUMONGOUS cast on my arm. Then I waited for my x-rays, which I found out a day later were taken incorrectly. The bullet had basically broken the bone in my arm and at this point they weren't sure if I need surgery to remove the bullet.
I was then wheeled into a corridor with about 30 other people, where I stayed for the next 3 days.
The nurses were amazing considering the conditions (They actually went on strike a few days later, have a look
here.) and amount of patients they had. I then found out after my friend harassing everyone that my x-rays weren't clear enough and had to have them taken again. This was on Monday night, bearing in mind I had been admitted at 11pm on Saturday night.
I finally saw a doctor at 6.30am on Tuesday morning, he wouldn't let me wake Fabio up to make sure I understood everything but basically said he had to analyse the new x-rays to see if I needed surgery or not. We waited for him to come back but I never saw him again.
We were still waiting on Wednesday to find out what was going on but kept being told that my doctor was in surgery ... for the past 3 days...
Fabio went to buy me a proper support sling as the cast was so heavy that the sling the hospital had given me hurt my arm. On his way back a nurse saw him and said he would get a doctor to help me fit it. By some sheer stroke of luck, it turned out to be my doctor who then discharged me. 3 days after I had been admitted, having sat and taken up space in an over crowded hospital in exactly the same condition and cast I'd been in since 1.30am on Sunday morning.
During this time we were visited by the police, shown photos and they actually
caught the guys on the Monday in the middle of another robbery.
We also went to pick up my x-rays, but they were at a different hospital, then they couldn't find them. But we finally got them.
I had another appointment at the hospital booked for 2 weeks time. During this time Brazil had a day that was recorded as the hottest day in the world that day, not fun with this badly put-on massive cast!!
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| Humongous heavy cast :( |
The cast had been rubbing under my arm and got infected because I was sweating so much. We had looked into private healthcare but it was R$300 for a consultation and R$150 to redo the cast, so we were holding out for the public hospital, if they didn't change it, we were going to go private. When we went back to the hospital we had been booked with a hand doctor fortunately he said he would see me as otherwise I was about to start crying. I finally got the taken off, after all the nurses had gawped and sighed at the old cast. The doctor actually redid my cast and made sure it was much thinner than the old one.
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| The bullet wound!! You can't even see anything!! |
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| The infection was worse than the bullet wound!! |
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| New, none smelly thinner cast! |
The doctor told me I would be in a cast for the next 3 months. I wasn't very happy about this as another 3 months of Fabio doing my hair/everything wasn't a great thought.
But I was extremely lucky, the bullet didn't hit any nerves, so I can move my hand. The gun was an old gun, so it didn't ricochet, as it could have got my heart. I have flabby bingo wings which helped slow down the bullet but missed my arteries. So now I am a gansta with a bullet in my arm, as it is safer to leave it in. I also have a letter for when I go through airport security, in case I set the alarms off!!!
Fabio has been amazing throughout this whole process and continues to be so. He has gone above and beyond the normal husband duties and I don't know what I would have done without him.
The positives of this is that our relationship is now even stronger and it also put me on the police's radar! We had the Federal Police turn up at the apartment to check that we are a real couple for my visa. They wanted to see our bedroom and inside our wardrobe!!! So that should be all sorted in 6 months time... or so they say...
Also, on a happier note, today is our 6 month anniversary!!
